Kootenay Silver President and CEO Jim McDonald talks about the company’s three major silver assets in Mexico and the company’s plans for 2017.

Kootenay Silver (TSXV:KTN) is a precious metals exploration company and a leading consolidator of silver assets in Mexico. Kootenay has three key assets, including the La Cigarra silver project in Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Promontorio and La Negra silver projects in Sonora, Mexico. With a combined NI 43-101 resource estimate of over 140 million ounces of contained silver, the company has one of the largest silver asset bases in the country.

Kootenay currently has two drill programs in progress in Mexico at its La Negra and La Cigarra projects. At La Negra, the company has a carried interest to commercial production with Pan American Silver (TSX:PAAS,NASDAQ:PAAS), which commenced a drill program in March 2017 to define the potential size of the deposit. At La Cigarra, Kootenay commenced a drill program in April 2017 aimed at expanding the current resource base.

Jim McDonald: I am Jim McDonald, president and CEO of Kootenay Silver. KTN is the symbol on the Toronto Venture Exchange. I am a professional geologist by education, and I have been in the junior resource mining game since 1988 — starting up junior companies, finding projects and developing them. One of the most notable deals we ever did was National Gold. We bought a gold deposit from Placer Dome at the bottom of the gold market and merged with Alamos Minerals, which had a $35-million market cap, to form Alamos Gold (TSX:AGI). The amalgamation of those two juniors became a $2-billion company. So we are looking to do something similar with Kootenay, especially with the recent acquisition of La Cigarra.

INN: What differentiates Kootenay Silver from its peers?

JM: Clearly, our ability to execute and our large resource base. We have made three discoveries. We have a large silver resource base; in effect, a silver bank. We have an excellent team on the ground that’s made these discoveries. And a really well-rounded board and management with experience right from discovery to development to building to mining and finance.

INN: What’s exciting about your three major silver assets in Mexico?

JM: We have three silver discoveries in Northern Mexico: La Negra, Promontorio and La Cigarra. La Negra and Promontorio are on the same property in Sonora State, and Pan American has taken that on under a joint venture. Basically we have a carried production interest of 25 percent through that deal. The La Cigarra discovery is in the famous Parral mining district in Chihuahua. There is a total current resource estimate of about 140 million silver equivalent ounces in the measured and indicated category on Promontorio and La Cigarra. La Negra does not yet have a resource estimate.

INN: Please tell us about Kootenay’s strategic investors and their involvement with the company’s projects.

JM: La Negra and Promontorio are on the same project. When we discovered Promontorio, that attracted Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX:AEM,NYSE:AEM) to us and they invested a large private placement into the company on that discovery. Later, the La Negra discovery attracted Pan American to invest in us and also to joint venture the whole property one year ago. The La Cigarra discovery attracted Coeur Mining (NYSE:CDE) who invested into Northair Silver who we acquired last year.

INN: What upcoming catalysts are on the horizon in 2017?

JM: We have two different drill programs going on at the La Cigarra project. We are the operators on that, of course. First, we need to finish drilling off the deposit. It is open in both strike directions and at depth. Then also, we have 11 peripheral targets that are either undrilled or under-drilled and we are prioritizing those. We will be drilling that deposit beginning in just a few weeks’ time and will start drilling those additional targets in about July or August. In addition to that, Pan American is going to be back on La Negra/Promontorio in June or July. Then we have a couple of other joint ventures on our grassroots generative projects that will be drilled this year as well. We are going to see a resource estimate on La Negra done by Pan American and we will expect to see a resource estimate on La Cigarra at the end of the year. So a ton of news flow.

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